Music Production: The Reverb Effect

1. Introduction to Reverb: the reverb effect is one of the most used in music production. So what does reverb actually do and how can you use it in your music? All right, so let's first define what reverb is. Reverb is short for reverberation, and it is created when a sound bounces on surfaces around the sound source, causing a large number of reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is absorbed. So basically, reverb is a large amount off echoes from all surfaces around you that smear together into what is called a reverb, or sometimes a room sound. But reverb doesn't have to be a room. In fact, you have reverb everywhere well, except in space, because there is no sound there. But the point is that if there are any surfaces at all, that sound can bounce on, you will get an echo, and all those echoes coming from all directions is what creates the reverb. The reverb tells our brain how large the room is, and even the kind of surfaces it has. For example, a wooden room sound very different than a room off stone. Like it's church. There are two types of reverb effects that you can use in music production. The first kind is called an algorithmic reverb and is basically an advanced mathematical calculation off what different spaces sound like. The second kind is called convolution reverb, and it is based on real recordings. In actual space is a prison in a convolution. Reverb is basically like a fingerprint off the acoustic environment it was recorded in. That fingerprint is used to transfer the acoustical data to the sound you added to. These presets are based on what is called impulse responses, but I simply call them acoustic fingerprints. So each preset in a convolution reverb is based on an actual space algorithmic. Reverb is give you more control over the sound, while convolution reverb has a more authentic sound. But that being said, there are actually great algorithmic reverb that sound very authentic even to a train here . So which one should you choose? Well, it depends on what kind of sound you want. Of course, my personal guideline is to use convolution reverb as a starting point on acoustic instruments, especially orchestral instruments and algorithmic reverb on Elektronik instruments. That is my personal recommendation, but in the end, it's totally up to you. The most important thing in a reverb. It's not. If it is based on algorithmic calculations or a real recording to create sound, it is the 40 off the creases. There are actually super high end algorithmic reverb that are used on Hollywood orchestral soundtracks, so there are no rules here, just facts and your creative choice. But the most significant difference is still that algorithmic rib herbs give you for greater control to shape the sound even after choosing the preset while convolution, reverb or basically fingerprints. So with convolution, reverb is you mainly control the sound by switching to another precinct. Now let's continue in the next video, where you learn how to use reverb in practice for your music productions. My name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video. 2. Reverb in Practice: In this video, you learn how to apply reverb to a track and also how to use and choose different styles of reverb on the tracks. In your music, you can add a reverb plug in in your DW in two ways, either as an insert effect on a specific track or, more commonly, as a send effect that you can use on many different tracks. I recommend adding you re burbs as send effects because then you can choose which tracks to send the reverb two and also dialing how much of the reverb sound you want by turning the sender knob on that mixer channel in your DW, I recommend not using too many different reverb styles in your mix, since you want to try to grew the mix into one cohesive sound. If you re verbs used as send effects will also save on CPU power. Compared to using lots of in certificates. I will no demonstrate both two ways for you so you can learn and choose whichever way you prefer to implement reverb in your music productions, adding a Rieber plugging either as an insert effect or as a send effect will work a bit different depending on your specific DW, but the principle is still the same. So let's start by adding a river plugging as an insert effect. First, you go into the mixer section off your DW, and then you find the track you want to add a reverb. Two. I have this piano track here. Then you simply load this specific river plugging You want to use onto that tracks Insert section, which in logic is called all your FX. So find the river Pugin. I want to go with platinum verb. Load it up on off that you can shape you reverb. Sound mainly by choosing a precept, and then use the dry and wet signal levels to define how what you want your sound to be. All right, let's now add a reverb as a send effect, which is the most common way. First, you need to create a bus track in some D. W's. You have a specific send effect trick type, which you can use for this. So what's creating new bus track here? By going to the send section off this track, you can see sense here and then click on an empty spot. And since we don't have any scent effects yet. This is empty to start with, then you click and choose a bus that is not used. So let's go with Bus One, and this will create our first send effect track. Let's rename it into reverb plate because I will add a plate River prison to it. This is the track where we will hold the river plug into, and it is going to be used as a shared resource that we now conf ead any track signals into by using what is called a send. Then you also need to lord the actual river plug ins onto each bus track because these bass tracks are empty right now. So if you feed signal into them from another track, you will simply increase the volume, not get any effect on the sound. So you need to add the river herbs by creating an insert effect on the send effect track. This might be a bit confusing, but send effects or basically shared insert effects used as resource is to feed signal into from many other tracks, so go to each stand effect, track and load on insert effect on it like this we have the river, but plate bus track here, go up to the insert effect section. Load a river plug in. Let's go with sealable verb. Then you simply choose a preset that corresponds to the track name as well as shaped the sound as you won't let said another send effect in the same way. By clicking on the new empty spot below the first send effect going to bus. And now here you can see that we have used the first bus already with the reverb plate, which I named it. So let's go with bus to another. That bus track is created, and let's rename this into reverb, and you do this for all send effects you want to use. Finally, you dial in which send effects to feed to from a track and how much by using the send nubs on each send, which you can see here. Now let's talk about reverb, preset styles. There are several different presets styles for reverb that you can choose. The most important aspect of reverb is how long the tail off the sound is before it fades out. The general rule is that the larger the acoustic space you're recording, the longer the reverb tae will be. The reverb sound also depends on other factors, like the shape of the room, the materials, the sound will bounce on etcetera. Here are some of the more common river presets you will see in the river. Plug ins, ambiance. Very short reverb that add some depth, but not really. A distinctive tail can be grateful. Rounding offer sound. Let me demonstrate the sound off a ambience. Precent. This is a dry vocal recording. This is a vocal recording with reverb room. There are various room pres. It's most or small to medium, and studio recording rooms are very common. Room presets are great for creating that intimate sound very often used on vocals, drums, guitars, etcetera. This is how a room pres it can sell like this is a dry vocal recording. This is a vocal recording with reverb plate, actually not based on an acoustical space, but on acoustic phenomenon, where you feed sound into a large plate off sheet metal, which vibrates and reverberate from the sound plate. Reverb has been a favorite for creating a big vocal sound without the smeary sound you often get with larger whole re verbs, mainly because plate works as a natural filtering effect on the reverb sound as well. Here's a demo of the sound of a Plate River precinct. This is a dry vocal recording. This is a vocal recording with reverb pools and large holes. A whole River pres. It will give you a big, wide and lush sound for that warm cinematic sound. I recommend a preset based on an orchestral whole or Hollywood style studio recording space . Now let's listen to the sound of a whole preset. This is a dry vocal recording. This is a vocal recording with reverb, churches and cathedrals. The biggest reverb Zoff them all because churches and cathedrals were basically created as large echo chambers. Materials like stone bounds almost all of the sound without absorbing much of the energy at all, which creates a very long reverb tail. This means you get that divine and huge sound from these presents, but they often work best on music, with few instruments used because the overall sound will wash over you so too many instruments will drown in each other very fast. Now let's listen to the massive sound off a large church River. This is a dry vocal recording. This is a vocal recording with River Great. Now you have learned how to add and set up reverb on any track in your music productions, and he also have a quick review. Plastic samples off some of the most common reverb styles for music. Now you should practice adding reverb yourself in your d aaw both as an insert. If EQT and as a send effect, then try all the different reverb styles and have fun experimenting until you get familiar with a kind of acoustic space. They represent I Mike, and I'll see you in the next video. 3. Live Demo: in these video, I will do a live demonstration off using reverb on a piano track. Let's begin so I will be demonstrating the's in a D W called reason because it has a very visual hardware style mixer and workflow. As you can see here, I hope this visual style, which is very similar to old school hardware style music production, will make it more clear for you how the audience signals and routing actually work. But again, the principle of using reverb either as an insert effect or as a send effect is the same regardless of which DW use. Now. Here we are in the sequencer of this project, and you might recognize these two all your tracks here from the reverb sound demos Earlier Below this I have created a piano track which I am now going to use to demonstrate, adding and dialing in a reverb sound Live First, let me demonstrate playing this piano sound without any reverb added. The preset I have chosen for the piano is miked, pretty close, so it will sound pretty dry. Let's have a listen, so that was without any reverb added. So here we are in the mixer again and you can see all three tracks in this project. Here, the dry vocal, the wet vocal on the piano track and above the failures. You can see the sense that send to the send effects over here. On on the wet vocal fact, you can see that this is activated, which means it sends to the bus number three send effect bus, which is here number three, the plate reverb pres it so using reverb as a send effect or any other send effect for that matter works like this. You have your track in your project. Then you send to a specific send effect by choosing one of these and it sends a duplicate off the signal from the track to the send effect. In this case, the plate reverb which in return sends back the wet signal to the track again and blends with the dry signal. So, on the specific send effect channels, you decide what kind of effect you want. In this case, I have various preset styles of reverb, and the send level knob decides how much of the effect you want. So turning it up, feeding more signal means more reverb sound, and turning it down means more over dry mix of your signal. So that is the signal work full off a send effect. Now let me show releasing practice. I have the piano track here and without any river sounds like this. Let's say I want to have some whole reverb on this. Then I simply need to activate the correct sent off this track that feeds signal into the bus track with the reverb I want to add. So in this case, it's number four with the whole reverb. So I activate this sentence now on, and then I can use the send level lobe to dialing the right amount of reverb I want. So if it's all the way down, it's simply the same as having the send off, because I don't feed any signal into this bus track. So let me show you what happens s I increase the send level when I play the piano. Now let's compare this with using a reverb effect as an insert effect, instead was deactivate this and then go into the insert. If ICS off this channel uncertified act is simply an effect that is put straight into the signal chain off the specific track. So here this plug in off a piano generates a sound so I can use an insert effect and put it into the signal chain. Let's see, we have a reverb here. It's actually pretty simple. Now we have the instrument generating the sound. Then the sound goes in directly into the river Pugin, and then it's sent to the track in the mixer so I can put these on Bypassed on. It will be no reverb if I turn it on. The signal from the instrument is fed into the reverb, and here I can choose. The river preset shaped the sound as I want. But instead of using a send nope to send to a cent effect, I instead use a dry and wit fader or no B, in this case, to blend a smart off the dry and wet senal as I want. So full own is on Lee. The sound off the river and fully to the left here is completely dry with me is no reverb, but usually you wanted somewhere somewhere in the middle range. Awesome. Now we have seen a live demo of using reverb and learned about the signal workflow. I'm Mike and I'll see you in the next video 4. Mike's Bonus Tips: you will now get some bonus tips on using reverb based on my own personal experience of music production. Here we go. Keep one shape. The reverb reverb is an effect that can easily drowned the sound of your mix, which makes it lose clarity and focus. If you want to use a big reverb sound, considering shortening the tail or go free preset that has a faster decay. There's a big difference between a whole reverb with a two or three second tale compared to a five or six seconds tail. You can also use something called pre delay on your river preset. This basically means that there is a delay from where you feed a dry signal into it until the river effects. The sound. Using a pre delay time can help keep the attack of your sound sharp and distinct. Another way you can shape your reverb is by filtering and eat, queuing it often. This is possible within the Prague in itself, for example, I usually filter out the low and frequencies off the reverb to avoid cluttering up the base of my music tape to keep your based sounds clear. Mother makes us is a huge problem for many music producers and the lower sounds like basis kick drums, etcetera or more difficult to tame because there's a narrow range of frequencies in that domain, where sounds need to compete and fight with each other. That's why you should add very little amount of reverb, two instruments and sounds in the lowest. Register some instruments you can avoid, adding reverb to completely like kick drums and basis for electronic music. Tip three Bigger is not always better. I know it's easy to always go for that big reverb sound like a lush hall reverb, for example, because when played in solo, it sounds beautiful. But remember that while reverb does make a sound bigger and wider, it comes at the expense off less definition and focus. That's why many styles of music that relies more on punishing is and clarity use river very sparingly. For example, Pope, he, Pope and many TDM styles are often very careful with adding river. As always, it completely depends on what kind of sound you won't big, lush and wide versus policy focused and tight. All right, that was my top tips on reverb from my practical music production experience. Now, even though there are guidelines and best practices, there are no rules. So go ahead and experiment with reverb as much as you like. I'm sure you will find really cool ways to use reverb to add to your own signature sound. My name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video. 5. Your Project: all right now it's time for you to take action, which is always the best way to learn your project is to create a short piece of music and add reverb to the tracks in it. Here's your guy to complete this project one. Create a short track using drums, bass and piano. A simple eight bar loop will do fine to add reverb to the drum track. Using the insert effect method, find a priest style you want. The creative choice is yours. Three. Set up a send effect for reverb with a whole preset and dialling the sentinel on the piano track in the mixer. Four. Try adding reverb to the base as well. Yes, so you can hear how it makes it Mahdi and lose tightness and focus. Then I recommend removing that river on the base and five. Experiment with shaping your river presets, using pre delay time, as well as filtering and e queuing. If it's available in your plug in, I might wishing you good luck with your reverb sound shaping adventures because you look my friends